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USS Dauntless
The "USS Dauntless" (NX-01-A) was an alien vessel disguised as a Starfleet prototype starship. In mid-2374, while still stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] received a transmission from Starfleet Command via the ancient Hirogen communications network. Although the message contained a number of unencoded personal messages, there was also an encrypted file that the Voyager crew was unable to open. On Stardate 51978, Voyager encountered an alien named Arturis who had a gift for translating languages, both verbal and computerized. He easily decrypted the mysterious message, which gave a set of coordinates near their current location. Upon arrival, the Voyager crew discovered the advanced Starfleet explorer, Dauntless. The Dauntless was equipped with an experimental quantum slipstream drive capable of propelling the ship over fifteen light-years in the space of five minutes; it had traveled from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant in only four months. This translates to an average cruising speed of 28 light-years per hour, or a burst speed of up to 300 light-years per hour. Unfortunately, the Dauntless proved to be an elaborate trap set by Arturis to arrange for the Voyager crew's assimilation by the Borg. Arturis's race had been recently assimilated by the Borg, and Arturis blamed that event on Kathryn Janeway's short-lived alliance with the Borg against Species 8472. Ultimately, Voyager eluded the trap, and Arturis was left stranded aboard the Dauntless as it entered Borg space, where he was presumably assimilated. (VOY: "Hope and Fear") Voyager later used the slipstream technology examined aboard the Dauntless to construct their own makeshift slipstream drive, which eventually propelled them over 10,000 light-years closer to home before it burned out. (VOY: "Timeless") Background Information Considering that no one aboard Voyager blinked at the unusual registry number of the Dauntless — NX-01-A — there was presumably an earlier USS Dauntless, with a registry of NCC-01, making it the first vessel commissioned into Starfleet. (The Enterprise registry number, NX-01, does not apply because the Federation Starfleet was almost certainly not the same as the Earth Starfleet.) It is possible, however, that they merely thought that with the new propulsion technology, Starfleet had elected to reset the registry numbers of its Starships to mark the new era of exploration they would supposedly bring. The most plausible explanation however is that the registry was meant as an homage to Archer's NX-01. Starfleet however wouldn't call two ships Enterprise at the same time, sice the Enterprise-E was all redy launched. A somewhat far-fetched theory is that the NX-01 was named Dauntless until Captain Picard and his crew altered history in Star Trek: First Contact by informing Zefram Cochrane that their ship was called Enterprise. Zephram Cochrane then decided to name the NX-01 "Enterprise" after the ''Enterprise''-E. Unfortunately, this theory does not hold much water since this Voyager episode takes place after the events of Star Trek: First Contact. The Dauntless model was re-used as a Starfleet ship in ENT: "Azati Prime" during the Battle of Procyon V, in the 26th Century. Whether this is supposed to be a different ship, or if Starfleet one day adapted the Dauntless design for itself, is unknown. Dauntless de:USS Dauntless